The ASEAN Heads of Civil Service signed today the Putrajaya Joint Declaration on ASEAN Post-2015 Priorities Towards an ASEAN Citizen-Centric Civil Service. The Declaration embodies ASEAN’s recognition of the need for civil service reform and greater engagement of the peoples to meet their needs, welfare and expectations as a people-oriented and people-centered ASEAN Community. The Declaration also acknowledged the importance of good governance in promoting sustainable development in ASEAN. It stipulates concrete actions to be taken by ASEAN Member States collectively and individually including strengthening good governance, integrity and cooperation in civil service, capacity building, technical cooperation, prioritising good regulatory practices (GRP) and promoting the highest standards of professionalism, efficiency, effectiveness, participatory approach, responsiveness, transparency and accountability in the civil service.

Prior to the signing ceremony, the ASEAN Heads of Civil Service Retreat was held on 17 November 2015 in Cyberjaya, Malaysia. The Retreat was officiated by H.E. Tan Sri Dr. Ali Hamsa, Chief Secretary to the Government of Malaysia and was chaired by H.E. Alicia dela-Rosa Bala, the 18th ACCSM Chair and Chairperson of the Civil Service Commission of the Philippines. The Retreat deliberated on strategies to heighten the ASEAN Cooperation on Civil Service Matters (ACCSM) in post-2015. Actions to strengthen the institutional arrangement of ACCSM were deliberated, including the adoption of new themes for the six ASEAN Resource Centres (ARCs) notably: Managing Civil Service Competency (for the ARC led by Brunei Darussalam), Public Service Delivery (Cambodia), ASEAN Pool of Experts on Civil Service (Indonesia), Strategic Collaboration through National Blue Ocean Strategy (Malaysia), ASEAN Leaders in Strategic Human Resource Programme – Building a Future-Ready Public Service (Singapore), and Supporting Public Service Reform (Viet Nam). The current themes of the other four ARCs are Civil Service Performance Management (Lao PDR), Training for Trainers for Civil Service (Myanmar), Examination and Testing (Philippines), and Leadership Development (Thailand).